1,272 research outputs found
The SKA view of the Neutral Interstellar Medium in Galaxies
Two major questions in galaxy evolution are how star-formation on small
scales leads to global scaling laws and how galaxies acquire sufficient gas to
sustain their star formation rates. HI observations with high angular
resolution and with sensitivity to very low column densities are some of the
important observational ingredients that are currently still missing. Answers
to these questions are necessary for a correct interpretation of observations
of galaxy evolution in the high-redshift universe and will provide crucial
input for the sub-grid physics in hydrodynamical simulations of galaxy
evolutions. In this chapter we discuss the progress that will be made with the
SKA using targeted observations of nearby individual disk and dwarf galaxies.Comment: 22 pages, 4 figures, to appear as part of 'Neutral Hydrogen' in
Proceedings 'Advancing Astrophysics with the SKA (AASKA14)', PoS(AASKA14)12
Study of the mixed state of La_{1.83}Sr_{0.17}CuO_{4} by means of muon-spin rotation and magnetization experiments in a low magnetic field
Muon-spin rotation (muSR) experiments are often used to study the magnetic
field distribution in type-II superconductors in the vortex state. Based on the
determination of the magnetic penetration depth it is frequently
speculated---also controversially---about the order-parameter symmetry of the
studied superconductors. This article reports on a combined muSR and
magnetization study of the mixed state in the cuprate high-temperature
superconductor La_{1.83}Sr_{0.17}CuO_{4} in a low magnetic field of 20 mT
applied along the c axis of a single crystal. The macroscopic magnetization
measurements reveal substantial differences for various cooling procedures.
Yet, indicated changes in the vortex dynamics between different temperature
regions as well as the results of the microscopic muSR experiments are
virtually independent of the employed cooling cycles. Additionally, it is found
that the mean magnetic flux density, locally probed by the muons, strongly
increases at low temperatures. This can possibly be explained by a non-random
sampling of the spatial field distribution of the vortex lattice in this
cuprate superconductor caused by intensified vortex pinning.Comment: 10 pages, 8 figures, accepted for publication in Physical Review
Modeling the Gas Flow in the Bar of NGC 1365
We present new observations of the strongly-barred galaxy NGC 1365, including
new photometric images and Fabry-Perot spectroscopy, as well as a detailed
re-analysis of the neutral hydrogen observations from the VLA archive. We find
the galaxy to be at once remarkably bi-symmetric in its I-band light
distribution and strongly asymmetric in the distribution of dust and in the
kinematics of the gas in the bar region. The velocity field mapped in the
H-alpha line reveals bright HII regions with velocities that differ by 60 to 80
km/s from that of the surrounding gas, which may be due to remnants of
infalling material. We have attempted hydrodynamic simulations of the bar flow
to estimate the separate disk and halo masses, using two different dark matter
halo models and covering a wide range of mass-to-light ratios (Upsilon) and bar
pattern speeds (Omega_p). None of our models provides a compelling fit to the
data, but they seem most nearly consistent with a fast bar, corotation at sim
1.2r_B, and Upsilon_I simeq 2.0 +- 1.0, implying a massive, but not fully
maximal, disk. The fitted dark halos are unusually concentrated, a requirement
driven by the declining outer rotation curve.Comment: 43 pages, 15 figures, accepted to appear in Ap
STIS Longslit Spectroscopy Of The Narrow Line Region Of NGC 4151. I. Kinematics and Emission Line Ratios
Longslit spectra of the Seyfert galaxy NGC 4151 from the UV to near infrared
have been obtained with STIS to study the kinematics and physical conditions in
the NLR. The kinematics show evidence for three components, a low velocity
system in normal disk rotation, a high velocity system in radial outflow at a
few hundred km/s relative to the systemic velocity and an additional high
velocity system also in outflow with velocities up to 1400 km/s, in agreement
with results from STIS slitless spectroscopy (Hutchings et al., 1998, Kaiser et
al., 1999, Hutchings et al., 1999) We have explored two simple kinematic models
and suggest that radial outflow in the form of a wind is the most likely
explanation. We also present evidence indicating that the wind may be
decelerating with distance from the nucleus.
We find that the emission line ratios along our slits are all entirely
consistent with photoionization from the nuclear continuum source. A decrease
in the [OIII]5007/H-beta and [OIII]5007/[OII]3727 ratios suggests that the
density decreases with distance from the nucleus. This trend is borne out by
the [SII] ratios as well. We find no strong evidence for interaction between
the radio jet and the NLR gas in either the kinematics or the emission line
ratios in agreement with the results of Kaiser et al. (1999) who find no
spatial coincidence of NLR clouds and knots in the radio jet. These results are
in contrast to other recent studies of nearby AGN which find evidence for
significant interaction between the radio source and the NLR gas.Comment: 32 pages, 13 figures, accepted for publication in The Astrophysical
Journa
Superconductivity and magnetism in RbxFe2-ySe2: Impact of thermal treatment on mesoscopic phase separation
An extended study of the superconducting and normal-state properties of
various as-grown and post-annealed RbxFe2-ySe2 single crystals is presented.
Magnetization experiments evidence that annealing of RbxFe2-ySe2 at 413 K, well
below the onset of phase separation Tp=489 K, neither changes the magnetic nor
the superconducting properties of the crystals. In addition, annealing at 563
K, well above Tp, suppresses the superconducting transition temperature Tc and
leads to an increase of the antiferromagnetic susceptibility accompanied by the
creation of ferromagnetic impurity phases, which are developing with annealing
time. However, annealing at T=488K=Tp increases Tc up to 33.3 K, sharpens the
superconducting transition, increases the lower critical field, and strengthens
the screening efficiency of the applied magnetic field. Resistivity
measurements of the as-grown and optimally annealed samples reveal an increase
of the upper critical field along both crystallographic directions as well as
its anisotropy. Muon spin rotation and scanning transmission electron
microscopy experiments suggest the coexistence of two phases below Tp: a
magnetic majority phase of Rb2Fe4Se5 and a non-magnetic minority phase of
Rb0.5Fe2Se2. Both microscopic techniques indicate that annealing the specimens
just at Tp does not affect the volume fraction of the two phases, although the
magnetic field distribution in the samples changes substantially. This suggests
that the microstructure of the sample, caused by mesoscopic phase separation,
is modified by annealing just at Tp, leading to an improvement of the
superconducting properties of RbxFe2-ySe2 and an enhancement of Tc.Comment: 13 pages, 12 figure
Applying Grover's algorithm to AES: quantum resource estimates
We present quantum circuits to implement an exhaustive key search for the
Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) and analyze the quantum resources required
to carry out such an attack. We consider the overall circuit size, the number
of qubits, and the circuit depth as measures for the cost of the presented
quantum algorithms. Throughout, we focus on Clifford gates as the
underlying fault-tolerant logical quantum gate set. In particular, for all
three variants of AES (key size 128, 192, and 256 bit) that are standardized in
FIPS-PUB 197, we establish precise bounds for the number of qubits and the
number of elementary logical quantum gates that are needed to implement
Grover's quantum algorithm to extract the key from a small number of AES
plaintext-ciphertext pairs.Comment: 13 pages, 3 figures, 5 tables; to appear in: Proceedings of the 7th
International Conference on Post-Quantum Cryptography (PQCrypto 2016
Local governance and business performance in Vietnam:the transaction costs’ perspective
Local governance and business performance in Vietnam: the transaction costs’ perspective. Regional Studies. This paper adopts a transaction costs’ perspective to explain why the growth of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) may vary across regions of an emerging economy. Furthermore, it is argued that young and small firms gain more from the improvement of local governance than do old and large firms. In addition, depending on the institutional history, SMEs will respond differently to the incentives provided by local governance. Analysing more than 300,000 SMEs in Vietnam during 2006–12, it is shown that higher-quality local governance positively influences local SME revenue growth; this effect is stronger for young and small firms, and matters more where institutional history suggests there is less support for entrepreneurship
HST FOC spectroscopy of the NLR of NGC 4151. I. Gas kinematics
We present the results from a detailed kinematic analysis of both
ground-based, and Hubble Space Telescope/Faint Object Camera long-slit
spectroscopy at sub-arcsec spatial resolution, of the narrow-line region of NGC
4151. In agreement with previous work, the extended emission gas (R > 4") is
found to be in normal rotation in the galactic plane, a behaviour that we were
able to trace even across the nuclear region, where the gas is strongly
disturbed by the interaction with the radio jet, and connects smoothly with the
large scale rotation defined by the neutral gas emission. The HST data, at
0.029" spatial resolution, allow us for the first time to truly isolate the
kinematic behaviour of the individual clouds in the inner narrow-line region.
We find that, underlying the perturbations introduced by the radio ejecta, the
general velocity field can still be well represented by planar rotation down to
a radius of ~ 0.5" (30 pc), distance at which the rotation curve has its
turnover.
The most striking result that emerges from our analysis is that the galaxy
potential derived fitting the rotation curve changes from a "dark halo" at the
ENLR distances to dominated by the central mass concentration in the NLR, with
an almost Keplerian fall-off in the 1"< R < 4" interval. The observed velocity
of the gas at 0.5" implies a mass of M ~ 10E9 M(sol) within the inner 60 pc.
The presence of a turnover in the rotation curve indicates that this central
mass concentration is extended. The first measured velocity point (outside the
region saturated by the nucleus) would imply an enclosed mass of ~ 5E7 M(sol)
within R ~ 0.15" (10 pc) which represents an upper limit to any nuclear point
mass.Comment: 30 pages (aaspp4.sty), 14 figures. Fig. 1, 2 and 4 available by
anonymous FTP at 143.54.2.51 (cd /pub/winge) as GIF files; or upon request to
[email protected]. Accepted for publication in the Astrophysical Journal
(part 1
Asymmetrical structure of ionization and kinematics in the Seyfert galaxy NGC 5033
We present integral field spectroscopy of NGC 5033, a low luminosity Seyfert
galaxy. The observations were made with INTEGRAL, a fiber based system
operating at the WHT. The intensity map of the H emission line
represents a spiral or ring-like pattern of HII regions. On the contrary, the
[OIII] intensity map morphology is markedly anisotropic. The strong
morphological differences imply that the [OIII] emitters represent highly
ionized gas illuminated by the central source. The [OIII] map morphology is
compatible with a biconical structure of ionization induced by strong
extinction in the galaxy disc that also obscures half of the spheroidal stellar
bulge. We identify the spectrum corresponding to the Seyfert 1 nucleus from the
presence of H broad emission lines. This spectrum is located in a region
where strong extinction is expected but exhibits the bluest spectral energy
distribution. The Seyfert 1 nucleus seems to be offcenter with respect to the
stellar rotation center. This result has been also found in other Seyfert
galaxies and interpreted in terms of a past merger. The offcentering could
indicate the presence of nonsymmetric departures in the gravitational potential
which could be fueling the active nucleus. The kinematics of the [OIII]
emitters show important deviations at a kpc scale with respect to the stellar
velocity field and show features related to the asymmetrical morphology of the
high ionization region.Comment: 9 pages, accepted for publication in Astronomy and Astrophysics.
Figures 1 and 7 are attached as .gif file
Evidence For Recent Accretion in Nearby Galaxies
I discuss observations of magnitude residuals from the B-band Tully-Fisher
relationship, B-V color, chemical abundance gradients, and asymmetries in the H
I and stellar disks of nearby spiral galaxies within the context of a model in
which small satellites or H I clouds are accreted onto the outer disks of
spiral galaxies. Correlations between the various observables support the
hypothesis that accretion dilutes the gas phase abundances in the outer disk,
steepens the abundance gradient across the disk, increases the star formation
rate, and creates asymmetries in the outer disk. By estimating the duration of
steep abundance gradients, elevated rates of star formation, or outer disk
asymmetries, constraints can be placed on the rate of accretion events. The
data suggest that accretion events at the current time are common.Comment: 4 pages (one Table and one Figure included). Accepted for Publication
in ApJ Letter
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